The latest trend in Tollywood industry is sequels. These can be either the continuation of the original film with main characters brought back in different perspective or made with entirely new storyline replaced with new characters. A few examples for sequels in Telugu are ‘Shankar Dada MBBS’-‘Shankar Dada Zindabad’ and ‘Homam’-‘Siddam’. In these lines here comes the latest ‘Villagelo Vinayakudu’, the sequel to the super hit ‘Vinayakudu’.
Director Sai Kiran Adivi has come up with an exclusive concept of love between a fat boy and a beautiful slim girl in his first venture ‘Vinayakudu’. I am unable to remain silent without appreciating the makers Sarita Patra and Prem Kumar Patra, who exhibited undisputed guts to present films like ‘Aa Naluguru’ and ‘Vinayakudu’, something incredibly simple, yet poignant. ‘Vinayakudu’, immensely attracted the gullible Telugu audience who always crave for variety in films. Not surprisingly it also was awarded the state Nandi award as second best film.
Krishnudu was no doubt the ideal choice for the title role ‘Vinayakudu’. It looked tailor made and his performance was impeccable. Not to say of this film being a turning point in his career by fetching him unimaginable opportunities in lead roles of course. ‘Vinayakudu’ infact has become a trend setter and now the film makers strive to think in different perspectives. Music in its part also played an important role in ‘Vinayakudu’. The flawless music touched on kinds of different moods perfectly suited the story. ‘Vinayakudu’ turned out to be a simple, clean and neat film with no punch dialogues, no fights, no separate comedy track and no item songs, still, it is the desire of Andhra people that the movie was a big hit!
At this juncture, to make a sequel for this critically acclaimed film is a big challenge to the director and producer as well. With the same hero Krishnudu, this time Sai Kiran Adivi joined hands with Moon Water Pictures for bringing out this sequel ‘Village Lo Vinayakudu’ introducing a fresh face Saranya Mohan as female lead. While ‘Vinayakudu’ depicts the love of a young fat boy, the sequel tells the romantic story of a fat man in a family. Although the storylines for both films are different, concept is the same. And surprise package for sequel is the famous novelist Yandamuri Veerendranath. The entire film was shot in a village called Rajolu in East Godavari district.
We are also aware of PG Vrinda’s amazing work in ‘Vinayakudu’, of course. To say some thing on the sequel’s cinematography rendered by Ramana Salwa, let’s wait for the film’s release.
‘Villagelo Vinayakudu’ also broke its own record by completing within a budget of Rs 1.39 crores (Vinayakudu’s budget was Rs 2.40 crores) and became the lowest budget film of the year 2009. Surprisingly, ‘Village Lo Vinayakudu’ also created a record in music market as the single largest selling music album of the year. Even though the music directors were different for both versions, still I can say that the director succeeded in what he requires. If Sham Prasanna delivered exceptional music in ‘Vinayakudu’, Manikanth Kadri’s musical scores in ‘Village Lo Vinayakudu’ also expected to create wonders.
On the part of promotion, it is no doubt that, ‘Vinayakudu’ poster designs and promos played prominent roles in pulling the crowds to theaters. But, now ‘Village Lo Vinayakudu’ went a step ahead by tying up with around 10 different media partners for its promotion and publicity. This apart, the unit members went on an AP tour to celebrate the success of its audio.
‘Vinayakudu’ was released like a normal film only to become a big hit. But will ‘Village Lo Vinayakudu’ with so much publicity be able to reach the expectations of audience? Well, it is a real challenge indeed.
